Gezicht op de Ortler Alpen before 1903

Curator: This photograph, entitled "Gezicht op de Ortler Alpen," attributed to Edgar Milster, predates 1903. As you can see, it's a print, likely a product of the pictorialist movement. Editor: Mmm, it's funny, isn't it? A picture of mountains making me feel claustrophobic. So much gray pressing down. Curator: Pictorialism, with its emphasis on aesthetic beauty over strict realism, often employed techniques to soften details and evoke atmosphere. Consider how that intention informs the interpretation of landscape and its intersection with nationalism or colonialism. Who has the right to see nature how? What meaning does nature have? And for whom? Editor: Woah, heavy questions! I see what you mean. I keep thinking the dark, blurry tones make everything recede – even those little buildings that hint at human presence. Are we dwarfed by nature, or trying to domesticate it? And did Edgar even ask himself the right question about the landscape or his audience? Curator: Exactly! The softness, the lack of sharp detail, pushes it toward subjective experience. Perhaps it suggests that our experience of nature is always filtered, mediated by our own cultural and historical baggage. The black and white emphasizes the drama, so what about what’s left out. Editor: And the little settlement is like a metaphor for humanity trying to survive in this massive, imposing landscape. And how long would that have survived anyway? The mountain outlasts all human habitation. Kind of a gloomy thought. Maybe Edgar wanted us to consider all these things! Curator: It's a reminder of the power of representation, the narratives we create, and the ever-shifting dialogue between ourselves and the world around us. Editor: Gives me the shivers, though...I can go back to mountains when global warming gets reversed!